No More Guess Work

A friend of mine took me fishing one Saturday on his family’s property just south of Montgomery, AL. We know each other from Birmingham Pro Painters where we had both gotten estimates on www.birminghampropainters.com. They had a five acre pond, but weren’t sure what fish were in it. They’d fished it, but got little bites. They thought of stocking it, but hesitated before knowing for sure if they needed to.

So, we were casting our lines to no avail. We tried lures, worms, crickets, heck, he even went to the house and brought pieces of hot dog and dog food to entice the fish. Not a nibble. Then his brother showed up.

Jake lived away and didn’t get home much. It was good to meet him and check his new ride, a Hummer. This was the full-sized version with all the options and all shiny. It even had the underwater snorkel. I remarked at how we could use that to see if there were any fish in the pond. I was joking, of course. “Let’s find out!” said Jake. “Y’all climb in.”

Never in a million years did I think he was serious about submerging his shiny new Hummer in several feet of water and mud. I laughed, “Yea, right.” “No, I’m serious,” he said, “This is what I bought it for. It’s not a boulevard cruiser!” And with that we piled in. Arriving at the pond’s edge, he put it into 4WD Low and eased it into the water. Headlights and fog lamps on, we looked around our make-shift submarine. To our amazement, there were plenty of fish! Bass, bream and crappie mostly and some were nice sized. We were like wide-eyed kids. We also spotted the vegetation and a couple felled trees and Jake remarked that there should be more for the fish to hide around and do what fish do. Pulling out of the pond, I breathed a sigh of relief that Jake didn’t get that truck stuck on the bottom. It was pretty solid and sandy, so that’s why.